TRENTON — A member of the Pinelands commission was right to recuse himself from a vote on whether to allow construction of a pipeline through the environmentally sensitive South Jersey region, the New Jersey State Ethics Commission ruled today.

Ed Lloyd — the Pinelands commissioner — said he asked the ethics commission for advice on Dec, 12, after Christie administration officials had told him to recuse himself. Lloyd hoped he would get the all clear to vote on the controversial project, which he opposed. But when the Jan. 10 vote came around, Lloyd had not heard back and recused himself out of caution.

Lloyd said he had been told to recuse himself by two deputy attorneys general in the Christie administration because he is a co-founder and co-director of the Eastern Environmental Law Clinic, which wrote a letter asking that the pipeline proposal be given more time for review.

Lloyd said that less than a week later, he got a call from the Pinelands ethics liaison, Stacy Roth, who told her that the ethics commission had ordered him to recuse himself. However, when the New York Times inquired, Peter Tober – then the ethics commission’s executive director – said it made no such order.

The pipeline would have led to a power plant owned by Rockland Capital, which is a client of Wolff & Samson — the law firm headed by former Port Authority chairman and Christie confidante David Samson.

“I’m disappointed. I don’t think it’s a conflict. I’m happy that we have high ethical standards. I don’t have any problem with that. I don’t think this arose because of a conflict of interest. But I’m interested to see their opinion. And I’ll review it,” Lloyd said. “It’s certainly possible that I could also appeal it, but I’ll make that judgment after I see that opinion.”

Lloyd said it’s unclear if the opinion means he’ll have to recuse himself from future vote on the pipeline if it comes before the Pinelands Commission again.